Ben Johnson offers brutal honesty on the transition expectations going into his first season with the Bears and it should have fans fired up
If there's one phrase Chicago Bears fans hate more than any other, it has to be Offseason Champs.The idea of being the offseason champs has surrounded the Bears for the last three years and it's only led to high expectations and more crushing heartbreaks for those who root for the team. No one wants to […]
If there's one phrase Chicago Bears fans hate more than any other, it has to be Offseason Champs.
The idea of being the offseason champs has surrounded the Bears for the last three years and it's only led to high expectations and more crushing heartbreaks for those who root for the team. No one wants to win the offseason, they want to win games.
Once again, we're hearing that the Bears are offseason champs after bringing in a star-studded coaching staff led by Ben Johnson and making splashes to the roster.
For the fans, they're tired of hearing it again. They want results, and whether those results come in 2025 is anyone's guess, but the team is on the right track.
Ben Johnson is bringing an entirely new culture and mentality to this organization and he knows better than anyone what it takes to turn a team around. He was a key part of the organization rebuild that saw the Detroit Lions go from a 3-win team to an annual Super Bowl contender in just a few seasons.
The process doesn't happen overnight, and it shouldn't. It takes commitment and setting the right expectations for the locker room.
When asked if the transition process will be easy for the players in the locker room, Ben Johnson gave the best answer possible, and it was brutally honest.
"It shouldn't be easy. This should be hard," Johnson said on Thursday. "The spring should be hard, training camp should be hard, anything worth doing is hard. It's going to take a lot of work, it's going to take a lot of effort…
"In particular, Year 1, we should not be comfortable as we're coming into the spring time. We're going to load these guys up, we're going to see what they can handle. We're going to fail, and that's okay. That's part of how you learn and how you grow and you get better. Nothing about this is about making it easier. So, yeah, it's going to be fun."
That's the kind of mentality and honesty from a head coach that should fire up the fanbase. He's not going to sugarcoat anything when it comes to re-building this team.
At the same time, Johnson has lofty goals for his new team out of the gate. Saying their going to fail to grow doesn't mean he expects this team to lose in 2025. It just means it's not going to be perfect every step of the way, and it never is for any team.
It's all about how you learn from those mistakes and improve. With that kind of mentality, this team can make real strides to success in a hurry under Johnson's guidance.
